Chapter LIII: Section 88 (2)

"There are 81 boarding schools located on the different
reservations, an increase of 11 over last year. At these
institutions the same general line of policy is pursued as at
the nonreservation schools. Frequently located far from the
centers of civilization, conditions are different, and their
conduct must be varied to suit their own special environment.
Many were formerly mission schools and army posts, unsuited to
Indian school purposes, but by constant modification are being
brought into general harmony with the system. … Government day
schools are small schools with capacity for 30 or 40 pupils
each. As a rule they are located at remote points on the
reservations, and are conducted by a teacher and a
housekeeper. A small garden, some stock, and tools are
furnished, and the rudiments of industrial education are given
the boys; and the girls are taught the use of the needle in
mending and sewing, and of the washtub in cleanliness. … There
were 147 day schools in operation during the year, an increase
of 5 over last year."

The number of government schools reported for the year 1900
was 253, total enrollment, 22,124, average attendance, 17,860;
contract schools, 32, with an enrollment of 2,806, average
attendance, 2,451; public and mission schools, 22, with an
enrollment of 1,521, and an average attendance of 1,257; the
aggregate being 307 schools, with an enrollment of 26,451, and
an average attendance of 21,568. "Statistics of the schools
for the New York Indians are not included in the above, for
the reason that as they are cared for by the State of New York
this office has no jurisdiction over them. … The Indian
population of the United States under the control of the
Indian Office (excluding the Five Civilized Tribes) was
187,312 in 1899, which would give a scholastic population of
between 45,000 and 47,000. Deduct 30 per cent for the sick and
otherwise disabled, and those in white schools or away from
the direct control of the office, and it would leave about
34,000 children for whom educational facilities should be
provided. There are now 26,000 of them in school, leaving
about 8,000 unprovided for."

_Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1900, pages 15-23._

{267}

"Taking the concurrent facts of history and experience into
consideration, it can, with a great degree of confidence, be
stated that the Indian population of the United States has
been very little diminished from the days of Columbus,
Coronado, Raleigh, Captain John Smith, and other early
explorers." The number of Indians in the United States in the
year 1900, according to the report of the Indian Office, was
272,023. This excludes "the Indians of Alaska, but includes
the New York Indians (5,334) and the Five Civilized Tribes in
Indian Territory (84,750)—a total population of 90,084. These
Indians are often separated from the others in statistics
because they have separate school and governmental systems."

_Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
1900, pages 47-49._

INDONESIAN RACE.

See (in this volume)
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION.

See (in this volume)
NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900; and
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).

INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS.

See (in this volume)
TRUSTS; UNITED STATES.

INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, The United States.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1895-1896.
Strike of glassworkers in France.

A great strike of French glass workers, beginning in the
summer of 1895, ended the following January in a lockout of
the men, leaving thousands without means of subsistence.

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1897.
The great dispute in the British engineering trades.

"The strike originated in an effort on the part of some of the
men employed in London to introduce the eight-hour day. As a
consequence of this movement, the Employers' Federation voted,
on July 1st, that in case the threatened movement in favor of
eight hours should be carried out 'notices will immediately be
given by the members of the associations affiliated to the
federation that a reduction of hands of 25 per cent. will take
place of the members of such unions in their employment.' This
challenge of the employers was quickly taken up by the
Unionists. The Amalgamated Society at once gave instructions
that in all cases in which notices of lockout were issued to
25 per cent. of their members, the remaining 75 per cent.
should hand in notices to cease work at the same time. The
result was the inauguration of a dispute, which took in part
the form of a lockout, in part that of a strike, but which
from the beginning was carried on with an ominous display of
bitterness and obstinacy on both sides. The membership of the
different societies concerned in the dispute was estimated, by
the Labor Gazette in July, at over 109,000. All of these were
not, of course, actually on strike. … It seems as if the
employers had been quite ready to enter into this contest with
the view of crushing the union, or at least of teaching it a
lesson; but the result is a very widespread industrial
conflict, which is producing results far beyond those
immediately concerned."

_Yale Review
(November, 1897)._

"The number of work people directly affected by the dispute
was about 25,000 at the outset, but as the area of the dispute
widened the number of firms and of workmen involved gradually
increased, until the lock-out involved 702 firms and 35,000
workmen directly and 12,500 indirectly. … Though the immediate
cause of the general dispute was the demand for an eight
hours' day in London, the real questions at issue between the
parties had become of a much more far-reaching kind, and now
involved the questions of workshop control and the limits of
trade union interference. During October and November
negotiations under the Conciliation Act took place between the
Board of Trade and the representatives of the parties with a
view to arrange a conference between them. As a result of the
correspondence both sides assented to the following basis for
a conference suggested by the Board of Trade:

1. The Federated Employers, while disavowing any intention of
interfering with the legitimate action of trade unions, will
admit no interference with the management of their business.
The Trade Unions on their part, while maintaining their right
of combination, disavow any intention of interfering with the
management of the business of the employers.

2. The notices demanding a 48 hours' week served on the
Federated Employers in London without previous request for a
conference are withdrawn.

3. A conference between representatives of the Federated
Employers and the Trade Unions concerned in the dispute shall
be held forthwith. …

Pending the conference the employers agreed to suspend all
pending lockout notices, and the Unions not to interfere in
any way with men in employment. …

"The sittings were held on November 24th and two following
days, and again on November 30th and three following days,
after which an adjournment took place until December 14th in
order to allow the men to vote as to the acceptance or
otherwise of the proposals made by the employers. … When the
Conference resumed its sittings on December 14th the result of
the ballot of the men was declared to be:—For the terms, 752;
against, 68,966. Discussion of the proposals was, however,
resumed and continued over four days by a sub-committee of
three representatives on each side, who consulted with their
colleagues when necessary. The terms were somewhat amended. …
On submitting these amended conditions to the vote of the men
1,041 voted in favour of their acceptance and 54,933 against.
The truce which had been arranged over the period of
negotiations was brought to an end by this vote, and fresh
notices of lock-out were given in various centres, which
considerably increased the numbers affected. …

"On January 13th, however, an important change was made in the
position of the men. The London Joint Committee, the body
which took the first actual step in the dispute by ordering
strike notices to be given in certain London shops, passed the
following resolution:—That we intimate to the Employers'
Federation that the demand for an eight hours' day, or
forty-eight hours' week be withdrawn. That before such
intimation is given the above resolution to be sent to the
Executive Councils of the Societies represented on the Joint
Committee for their approval or otherwise. … This resolution
received the approval of the trade unions concerned, and the
withdrawal of the demand for a 48 hours' week was intimated to
the Employers' Federation, which, however, still insisted on
the acceptance by the unions of the 'conditions of management
mutually adjusted at the recent Westminster Conference' as a
condition of returning to work. The men asked that the
employers' notes and explanations should be read as part of
the proposed agreement, and eventually, after renewed
negotiations between the parties, a provisional agreement was
arrived at and submitted to the votes of the men, who ratified
it by 28,588 to 13,727. The final agreement was signed in
London on January 28th, and work was resumed in the following
week. …

{268}

"Naturally, after so long a stoppage the resumption of work by
the men was a gradual process, but the number unemployed owing
to the dispute, including those indirectly affected, sank from
44,500 at the close of the lock-out to 7,500 at the end of
February, 2,000 at the end of April, 1,500 at the end of May,
and 1,000 at the end of June. … Some idea of the indirect
effects of the stoppage on trades related to those engaged in
the struggle may be formed from the fact that the percentage
of unemployed members in trade unions of the ship-building
group rose from 4.4 per cent. in July, to 14.1 per cent. in
December."

_Great Britain, Board of Trade (Labour Department),
Report on the Strikes and Lock-outs of 1897._

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1897.
Great coal miners' strike in the United States.

A general strike of the coal miners in the various districts
of the United States began in July, 1897. The territory
covered five states and involved about 157,000 men. The
strikers asked for an advance in wages on the ground that it
was their right to share in the increase of business
prosperity and advanced prices. A grievance for which redress
was asked was that of being obliged to buy at the company
stores, paying in company's orders, to be deducted from their
wages. The principal grievance was the 54-cent rate, paid by
Mr. W. P. De Armitt of the New York and Cleveland Gas Coal
Company. The men employed by Mr. De Armitt had signed a
contract to accept a rate 10 cents below that of other
operators, in return for which he had abolished company
stores, gave steady employment, and paid promptly in cash. His
men were satisfied with the arrangement, although the
prevailing price for mining coal was 64 cents a ton. Most of
them, however, were finally forced by the organization to join
the strikers. The strike lasted until September 12, when
matters were arranged in a convention at Columbus, Ohio, when
a uniform rate of 65 cents was adopted.

A tragic feature of the strike occurred at Lattimer,
Pennsylvania, where a mob of marching miners, resisting the
sheriff and handling him roughly, were fired upon by armed
deputies. Eighteen were killed and about forty wounded.

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1898.
New England cotton mill strike.

In January a general strike, affecting 125,000 operatives,
resulted from a reduction in wages in 150 cotton mills of New
England. By April most of the strikers returned to work at the
manufacturers' terms.

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1898.
Coal miners' strike in Illinois.

This strike, beginning in May, originated in the refusal of
the mine operators to grant the rate of 40 cents a ton, agreed
upon after the strike of 1897. The operators refused to
compromise and the miners were upheld by the United Mine
Workers. Riots arose in the towns of Pana and Virden upon the
attempt of the mine owners to import negro workers from the
south. Governor Tanner, in sending troops to restore order,
enjoined upon them to protect citizens, but on no account to
assist mine owners to operate their mines with imported labor,
The governor's attitude provoked much criticism. A serious
outbreak occurred on October 12, at Virden, when 14 persons
were killed and 25 wounded. The strike at Virden was settled
in November, the mine owners agreeing to the demands of the
miners. The trouble at Pana lasted until April, when a
settlement was arrived at.

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES, Wide-spread: A. D. 1900.
Anthracite coal miners' strike in Pennsylvania.

A great strike of the anthracite mine workers of Pennsylvania,
which began September 17, practically ended October 17, when
the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company and the
Lehigh Valley Coal Company agreed to abolish the sliding scale
in their respective regions and to grant an advance in wages
of 10 per cent. net, the advance to remain in operation until
April 1, 1901, and thereafter till further notice. Mr. John
Mitchell, president of the Mine Workers' National Union, in a
speech soon after the end of the strike, said that of the
142,000 men concerned "at first only 8,000 men were in the
union or organized. Nevertheless, the day the strike began,
112,000 men laid down their tools; and when the strike ended,
after 39 days of non-employment, all but 2,000 of them had
joined the ranks of the union."

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, in the United States.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897.

INITIATIVE IN SWITZERLAND, The.

See (in this volume)
SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1894-1898.

INSURANCE, Compulsory, in Germany.

See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1897-1900.

INTERCONTINENTAL RAILWAY, The.

See (in this volume)
RAILWAY, INTERCONTINENTAL.

INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION.

See (in this volume)
ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL.

INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUING, of Scientific Literature.

See (in this volume)
SCIENCE, RECENT: SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONGRESS.

An important step in promotion of the development of
international commerce was taken at Philadelphia, in October,
1899, by the assembling of an International Commercial
Congress, under the auspices of the Philadelphia Commercial
Museum and the Franklin Institute, with the co-operation, not
only of the city and the State, but also of the Congress of
the United States. Some forty governments, and a great number
of chambers of commerce and other business organizations were
represented, and much good was expected from the meeting. It
adopted resolutions urging co-operative and assimilated action
by all nations, in the registration of trade marks, in the
preparation of trade statistics and agricultural reports, and
in the establishing of the parcels post. It commended the
Philadelphia Commercial Museum as an example to be imitated;
urged the construction of an interoceanic canal, recommended
free trade in artistic works, and pleaded for the pacific
settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

At the time of the session of the Congress, a National Export
Exposition was being held at Philadelphia, under the same
auspices, with great success.

{269}

INTEROCEANIC CANAL.

See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.

INTEROCEANIC RAILWAY, The Tehuantepec.

See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.

INTER-STATE COMMERCE, American.
Arbitration of industrial disputes.

See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JUNE).

INVENTIONS:
Comparison of the Nineteenth Century with preceding ages.

See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: COMPARISON.

IRADE.

See (in this volume)
TURKEY: A. D. 1895.

----------IRELAND: Start--------

IRELAND: A. D. 1890-1900.
Hopeful work in the organization and systematization
of Irish agriculture.

"Can nothing be made of an essentially food-producing country
situated at the very door of the greatest market for
food-stuffs that the world has ever seen? Government has at
last moved in this matter, but, as usual, not before private
initiation had shamed them into action. Mr. Horace Plunkett
and his friends went to work ten years ago, pointing out that
Ireland had natural resources equal or superior to those of
countries which were driving her few products out of the
English market, and preached the organisation, the
co-operation, and the scientific methods of agriculture which
in those other countries were inculcated and subsidised by
state agencies. Then the Congested Districts Board, under the
auspices of Mr. Arthur Balfour, began its beneficent work.
Then came in 1895 the Recess Committee, on Mr. Plunkett's
suggestion; and finally, in 1899, the recommendations of that
Committee's invaluable Report were practically embodied in the
creation of a Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.
This body has scarcely as yet begun its work, but its main
business will be to do throughout the whole of Ireland what
has been done in the least hopeful districts by the Congested
Districts Board, and over a larger area, but with very
inadequate means, by the Irish Agricultural Organisation
Society, of which Mr. Plunkett has been the moving spirit.
Things are therefore only at their beginning. … The main
purpose of the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society has
been not to create new industries but to organize and
systematise the one already existing—the characteristic Irish
industry of agriculture. It has done the work which in France,
Denmark, Canada, and a dozen other countries that can be
named, is being done by a State department; and the efforts of
its promoters have brought into being such a department for
Ireland also. The Society spent in nine years £15,000 of
subscriptions. This neither can last nor ought to last. It is
the business of the Department, if it does not supersede the
Society, to subsidise it."

_Stephen Gwynn,
A Month in Ireland
(Blackwood's Magazine, October, 1900, page 573)._

The most effective work done thus far, by the official and
private agencies above mentioned, appears to have been in the
organization of co-operative creameries and dairies.

IRELAND: A. D. 1894.
Cooling of the Liberal party towards Irish Home Rule.

See (in this volume)
ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.

IRELAND: A. D. 1896.
A new Land Act.

"The celebrated Land Act of 1881, supplemented by Acts in the
same direction, placed the land of Ireland, as everyone knows,
under a system of perpetual leases, at State-settled rents,
renewable every fifteen years; and, in 1896, the time was at
hand for revising the rents fixed from 1881 onwards, and for
renewing the leases made during this interval of time. An Act,
accordingly, was passed through Parliament in order fully to
accomplish this end; and, incidentally, it dealt with many
other things connected with the Irish Land System, and with
the legislation inaugurated in 1881. It enlarged the sphere of
State-settled rent, bringing within it certain classes of
tenants which, hitherto, had been excluded from it; it placed
the law for exempting tenants' improvements from rent, to a
considerable extent, on a new basis; and it introduced, for
the first time, what is called the principal of 'compulsory
purchase' into the system of 'Land Purchase,' so named in
Ireland, always a favourite policy of Lord Salisbury's
Governments."

_Judge O'Connor Morris,
The Report of the Fry Commission
(Fortnightly Review, November, 1898)._

The new bill (59 & 60 Vict. ch. 47) was carried successfully
through Parliament by the Government, with skillful management
on the part of Mr. Gerald Balfour, the Secretary for Ireland,
after many amendments and much debate. It was a compromise
measure, reluctantly accepted and satisfying no interest or
party. The general feeling with which it was passed is
described as follows: "The practical result of the discussion
was to show that the bill did not go so far as Mr. T. W.
Russell, a member of the Government and the representative of
the Ulster farmers, wished; that the section of the
Nationalists headed by Mr. Dillon were anxious to throw cold
water upon it, but afraid to oppose it openly; and that Mr.
Healy and his friends, as well as the Parnellites, were ready
to do their best to ensure its passing. But while the
representatives of the tenants were ready to accept the bill
as an installment of their claims, they at the same time
pronounced it, to be inadequate. … The Dillonites were
unwilling to give the Healyites and the Parnellites the chance
of taunting them with having lost the bill, whilst the
landlords hoped for an improvement of the purchase clauses and
a reform of procedure in the law courts. … The debate on the
third reading, although not forced to a division, was
spirited; the landlords opposing it because it was too much of
a tenant's bill, and Mr. Davitt opposing it because it was too
much of a landlords' bill. Mr. Dillon and his followers voted
for it, but in their speeches did all they could to run it
down, while the Parnellites and Healyites did all in their
power to support it."

_Annual Register, 1896,
pages 160-161._

{270}

IRELAND: 1896-1897.
Report of a Royal Commission on the Financial Relations
between Great Britain and Ireland.

"At various times since the passing of the Act of Legislative
Union between Great Britain and Ireland, complaints have been
made that the financial arrangements between the two countries
were not satisfactory, or in accordance with the principles of
that Act, and that the resources of Ireland have had to bear
an undue pressure of taxation. Inquiries into the truth of
these allegations have frequently been called for"; but it was
not until 1894 that provision was made for a thorough
investigation of the subject. In that year a Royal Commission
was appointed, with Mr. Childers, ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer, at its head, "to inquire into the financial
relations between Great Britain and Ireland, and their
relative taxable capacity, and to report:

(1.) Upon what principles of comparison, and by the
application of what specific standards, the relative capacity
of Great Britain and Ireland to bear taxation may be most
equitably determined.

(2.) What, so far as can be ascertained, is the true
proportion, under the principles and specific standards so
determined, between the taxable capacity of Great Britain and
Ireland.

(3.) The history of the financial relations between Great
Britain and Ireland at and after the Legislative Union, the
charge for Irish purposes on the Imperial Exchequer during
that period, and the amount of Irish taxation remaining
available for contribution to Imperial expenditure; also the
Imperial expenditure to which it is considered equitable that
Ireland should contribute."

The Commission made its "Final Report" in 1896, submitting the
conclusions on which its members were unanimously agreed, and
presenting, further, no less than seven differing reports on
other points upon which agreement could not be reached. The
summary of conclusions in the unanimous joint report was as
follows:

"In carrying out the inquiry we have ascertained that there
are certain questions upon which we are practically unanimous,
and we think it expedient to set them out in this joint
report. Our conclusions on these questions are as follows:

I. That Great Britain and Ireland must, for the purpose of
this inquiry, be considered as separate entities.

II. That the Act of Union imposed upon Ireland a burden which,
as events showed, she was unable to bear.

III. That the increase of taxation laid upon Ireland between
1853 and 1860 was not justified by the then existing
circumstances.

IV. That identity of rates of taxation does not necessarily
involve equality of burden.

V. That whilst the actual tax revenue of Ireland is about
one-eleventh of that of Great Britain the relative taxable
capacity of Ireland is very much smaller, and is not estimated
by any of us as exceeding one-twentieth."

_Great Britain,
Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: C.—8262, pages 1-2)._

The report was keenly criticised in England, and the fact that
it emanated from a Commission in which the majority were
partisans of Irish Home Rule was used by the Conservatives to
disparage its conclusions. A new investigation of the subject
was called for. The subject came before Parliament in the
session of 1897,—first in the Lords, and later in the Commons.
On the 30th of March, Mr. Blake, a member from Ireland, moved
a resolution in the House of Commons, to the effect that the
report of the Commission had established the existence of an
undue burden of taxation on Ireland and made it the duty of
the Government to propose remedial legislation at an early
day. The debate which this opened was continued during three
nights, at the end of which the motion was negatived by a vote
of 317 to 157.

IRELAND: A. D. 1898 (July).
The Local Government Act.

A bill which had great success, so far as it went, in
satisfying the representatives of Ireland in the Parliament of
the United Kingdom, was brought forward there, by the
Conservative Government, in February, 1898, and carried
through both Houses in July. It was accepted by the Irish as
"no substitute for Home Rule," but as a recognized "step in
that direction." It had been foreshadowed in the Queen's
Speech at the opening of Parliament, and described as a
measure "for the organisation of a system of local government
in Ireland substantially similar to that which, within the
last few Years, has been established in Great Britain." This
important Act established County Councils, Urban District
Councils, Rural District Councils, and Boards of Guardians,
all elected by ballot every three years, on a franchise
broader than the Parliamentary franchise, since it gave the
local suffrage to women. The same Act extended to Ireland the
provisions of the Act for the relief of agricultural land, and
contained some other welcome provisions of financial relief.

_61 & 62 Vict. chapter 37._

"To understand the extent of the change which is now
determined on … it is necessary first to describe the system
of Irish Local Government which is about to pass away forever.
Broadly speaking, that system consisted of three parts, viz.:
the Grand Jury, the Poor Law Boards, and various forms of
Municipal Government in towns and cities. … The Grand Jury was
about the most anomalous and indefensible institution which
can be conceived. It consisted, usually, of a couple of dozen
persons chosen from a larger number selected by the High
Sheriff for the county or the city, as the case might be, the
High Sheriff himself being the nominee of the Lord Lieutenant,
who acted on the recommendation of the Superior Court Judges,
who, in their turn, always recommended some leading landlord
and magistrate. … The Grand Jury in every Irish county, down
even to the present year, has always consisted almost entirely
of members of the landlord class, and mainly of Protestants
also. To bodies thus constituted was entrusted the control of
all public roads and other public works of the county, the
contracts therefor, the management of the prisons, the care of
the public buildings, the power to contribute to infirmaries,
lunatic asylums and fever hospitals, the appointment of all
the paid officials of the county, and the right to levy a tax
called the county cess, which, of late years, has produced
considerably more than a million pounds sterling annually.
Associated with the Grand Juries were smaller bodies, the
members of which met at 'Presentment Sessions' once or twice a
year to initiate county works. Those bodies also were
non-elective, and represented mainly the landlords and
magistrates of the respective counties. In the old days, these
Grand Juries became—not unnaturally—not merely nests of jobbery
and corruption, but an agency of social and political
oppression. …
{271}
For many years past, indeed, the Grand Juries have not been
open to all those charges. They have not, as a rule, been the
corrupt jobbers they were forty or fifty years ago. Their
administration of the business entrusted to them has been
fairly honest and efficient. But in their constitution they
have, on the whole, continued to be what they were. …

"The Boards of Poor Law Guardians have in the course of time
become more or less popular bodies, and, besides their
original function of dispensing relief out of the rates to the
destitute poor, have been invested with the management of so
many other matters in recent years that their title is now
really a misnomer. They are, for instance, the sanitary
authorities in all rural and in some urban districts; they
have to do with the registration of births, deaths, and
marriages, and—not to go through the whole list of their
powers and duties—they have had the administration of the
Laborers' Acts, under which a good deal has been done, since
the year 1883, to improve the homes of agricultural laborers.

"It remains to notice the system of Government in the towns
and cities. In this case there has been some degree of reality
in the phrase, 'local self-government'—at least, for the last
forty or fifty years. Down to 1840 there was no really
representative system of government in any Irish town or city.
… Since the year mentioned the corporations have been more or
less representative, and since 1854 the smaller towns in
Ireland have been allowed the right to possess municipal
institutions of a less important, but still representative,
character. In respect, however, of both the corporations of
the cities and of the town boards of the smaller civic
communities, the franchise for municipal purposes has been
ridiculously restricted. In Dublin, the population exceeds
300,000; the Parliamentary electorate is upwards of 40,000;
but the municipal electorate amounts to only about 8,000 or
9,000; and the same story is true of all the other
municipalities, except a few which, like Belfast, have by
special acts of Parliament obtained extensions of the suffrage
peculiar to themselves.

"Here, then, was a state of thing's which, assuredly, required
mending, and, as I have said, innumerable efforts to mend it
had been made up to last year with no result. Last summer,
however, the reform now virtually accomplished was announced
to the House of Commons one afternoon by Mr. Arthur Balfour,
without anyone having asked for it and without any warning
whatever. The chief features of the measure may be briefly
described. In the first place, the ground is cleared by
absolutely sweeping away the Grand Juries for fiscal purposes.
Those bodies are still retained for their original
purpose—that, namely, of dealing with indictments. … With them
go the Boards of Guardians as they are at present constituted.
Bodies will still continue to exist under that name, but they
will be no longer constituted as they are now. … In the place
of the Grand Juries and the Boards of Guardians there has been
set up a rather complicated system of County Councils and
District Councils, these latter being sub-divided into two
classes—Urban District Councils and Rural District Councils;
and at this point one provision applicable to all those
bodies, and also to every Corporation and Town Board in the
country, may be conveniently mentioned. It is that which
enacts that the electorate in each case shall be the
Parliamentary electorate, in addition to peers and to such
women as would, if they were men, be qualified for the
Parliamentary franchise. Here is manifestly a great reform in
itself. … The change is a vast one, in view of the narrow
foundation on which even the most popular Irish local
institutions have hitherto rested. It means the transfer of
power from a class to the people. It means the ousting of what
used to be the English garrison in Ireland from what it had
come to regard as its inalienable heritage. It marks the entry
of the Irish Nation, after ages of weary waiting, into at
least a considerable portion of its birthright. To the County
Councils, which will thus repose on a thoroughly popular
basis, and one of which will be established in every county,
will be entrusted all the fiscal business of the Grand Juries,
with one exception. The excepted business is that of assessing
compensation for malicious injuries."

_J. J. Clancy,
The Latest Reform in Ireland
(North American Review, September, 1898)._

IRELAND: A. D. 1900 (April).
Visit of Queen Victoria.

For the first time in nearly forty years, Queen Victoria paid
a visit to Ireland in April, and held court in Dublin for
three weeks, being cordially received and treated throughout
with respect by well-mannered crowds. Apparently the visit
gave satisfaction to most of the Irish people.

IRELAND: A. D. 1900-1901.
Parliamentary elections.
Triumph of the United Irish League.
Its absorption of the Nationalist party.
Its programme.

The elections to a new Parliament (see, in this volume,
ENGLAND: A. D. 1900, SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), held in October,
resulted in a sweeping victory for the United Irish League, a
new organization formed by Mr. William O'Brien, which,
according to the "London Times," "has practically absorbed the
whole of the Irish Nationalist party" and "is the successor in
title of the old Land League." "Mr. William O'Brien," says the
"Times," "returned his own followers to Parliament from
practically every Nationalist constituency in Ireland. … For
the moment at least all the other successors of Mr. Parnell
are vanquished or in captivity, and Mr. O'Brien finds himself
at the head of a party which for the first time in ten years
has the right to call itself 'united.'"

On the opening of the Parliament, in the following February,
the new League was soon brought to its attention by Mr.
O'Brien, who moved, on the 22d, to amend the Address to the
King, which was then under discussion, by adding to it the
following: "Humbly to represent to your Majesty that this
House has observed that a combination of the agricultural
classes in Ireland has been formed, under the name of the
United Irish League, with the object of accomplishing reforms
which alone, in the opinion of nine-tenths of the
constitutional representatives of Ireland, can arrest the
continued depopulation of that country and the decay of its
only great national industry.
{272}
These reforms being, first, the creation of an occupying
proprietary in substitution for the present unsettled and
vexatious system of dual ownership of land; and, secondly, the
utilization of extensive tracts, at present lying practically
waste in the congested districts, for the purpose of supplying
holdings of sufficient extent to a hard-working and deserving
population, who for want of land are compelled to live in a
condition of chronic privation and even famine on the borders
of those fertile depopulated areas; that the movement which
has been carried on for the past three years for the promotion
of these objects has been marked by the disappearance of those
crimes of violence and secret conspiracies which were used to
the discredit of all former agrarian combinations in Ireland,
and the league, basing itself on the principle that its
struggle is in the nature of a great economic industrial
dispute between the tillers of the soil on the one side and
the rent-owners, supported by a vast capital and territorial
influence, on the other, has relied for success upon those
combinations for mutual protection and appeals to public
opinion which the trade union laws have expressly authorized
in the cause of disputes between capital and labour of a
non-agricultural character; that, nevertheless, this House has
observed that the forces of the Crown have been
unconstitutionally employed, and public justice has been
polluted in the interest of one of the parties to the dispute;
that the right of public meeting has been capriciously
suppressed; that prosecutions for conspiracy and Whiteboyism
have been instituted in reference to open and advised appeals
to public opinion and measures of mutual protection, which are
indisputably within the right of trade unions in ordinary
industrial struggles; that the power of contempt of Court has
been unconstitutionally and oppressively abused for the
purpose of inflicting prolonged sentences of imprisonment
without trial; that the right of trial by jury has been
outraged by the systematic exclusion from the jury-box of all
jurors sharing the politics or creed of the accused, and the
empanelling of juries composed exclusively of sympathizers
with the territorial class, that the liberty of the Press in
Ireland has been assailed, and influential organs of opinion
prosecuted in the endeavour to silence public comment on this
iniquitous system; that grievous and vindictive fines have
been exacted from districts obnoxious to the landlord interest
by means of charges for extra police quartered upon peaceful
populations, and that the people of Ireland have been
subjected to divers others the like cruel oppressions and
provocations; and humbly to represent to your Majesty that, it
being of the highest constitutional import to encourage the
Irish people to seek the redress of their grievances by the
fullest freedom of speech and of combination which is
warranted by the example of the trade unions of Great Britain,
this House is of opinion that the attacks at present directed
by the Executive against the rights of free speech and of
combination in Ireland should cease, and that the legislation
protecting the trade unions in the exercise of their rights of
combination against capital and non-union labour should be
extended to all agricultural combinations of a similar
character in that country."

In his speech supporting the amendment Mr. O'Brien charged
that, "there being no real crime in Ireland, the Executive
there had made crime of perfectly legitimate actions, treating
the people as if the object was to goad them into conspiracy
and violence. The record of the league was virtually a
crimeless one, it had carried on its work now for three years
without any of those blood-curdling incidents which coercion
Ministers used to smack their lips over in that House. … The
league, which had been tested by time and had proved its power
at the general election, had started and carried on in Ireland
an irresistible agitation for the suppression, for the
abolition of landlordism, and had elicited in the King's first
Speech a promise, such as it was, of another land Bill,
although two years ago that House was assured that there was
no longer an Irish land question."

An extensive combination, he said, was going on in Ireland
against the taking of evicted farms, and "what form of trade
unionism could be more legitimate?" But charges of
intimidation and conspiracy; he claimed, were trumped up, and
juries were packed, for the suppression of this movement,
though it went no farther than trades unions in England could
go with no interference. "The Irish people exercised the right
of combination in the United Irish League, and they would
continue to exercise it whether the Government liked it or
not, in order to obtain the land on conditions that would give
its cultivators a living wage. In the ranks of the
organization were 500,000 farmers and labourers, representing
with their families three-fourths of the population of
Ireland. Their object was to parcel out the vast grazing lands
lying derelict among the cottagers who were starving on their
verge. A department of the Government was actually engaged in
carrying out the programme of the league, but at such a
snail's pace that it would take centuries to make any
impression upon the mass of misery which existed in the
country."

After several hours of debate the amendment to
the Address was rejected by 203 votes against 109.

----------IRELAND: End--------

IRON, Combinations in the production of.

See (in this volume)
TRUSTS: UNITED STATES.

IRON GATES OF THE DANUBE, Opening of the.

See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896.

ISLE DU DIABLE.

See (in this volume)
FRANCE: A. D. 1897-1899.

ISRAEL, The People of:
Discovery of the sole mention of them in Egyptian inscriptions.

See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: EGYPT: RESULTS.

ISTHMIAN CANAL, The.

See (in this volume)
CANAL, INTEROCEANIC.

ISTHMIAN RAILWAY, The Tehuantepec.

See (in this volume)
MEXICO: A. D. 1898-1900.

ITAGAKI, Count: Leader of the Japanese Liberal party.

See (in this volume)
JAPAN: A. D. 1890-1898.

{273}

----------ITALY: Start--------

ITALY: Recent archæological explorations.

See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: ITALY.

ITALY: A. D. 1895-1896.
Accusations against the Crispi Ministry.
Fresh offense to the Vatican.
Disastrous war with Abyssinia.
Fall of Crispi.

In elections to the Italian Chamber of Deputies, which took
place in May, 1895, the government, under Signor Crispi, was
accused of audacious practices, striking the names of opposed
electors from the voting lists, to the number, it is said, of
several hundreds of thousands, and contriving otherwise to
paralyze the opposition to itself. The result of the elections
was the return of 336 government candidates, against 98 of
other parties. An attempt to obtain an official return of all
the deputies who were receiving pay from the State, directly
or indirectly, was skilfully baffled by Signor Crispi, and
remained a matter of rumor and guess. In September, the
government gave fresh offense to the Vatican by an imposing
celebration of the 25th anniversary of the entry of the
Italian troops into Rome, with a display of the flag of
free-masonry. Hostility of France and Russia to Italy was made
acute "by the renewal, on the return of Lord Salisbury to
office in 1895, of an agreement between England, Austria and
Italy for common action in the Eastern question, originally
made in 1887. In virtue of this agreement Italy sent her fleet
to the Aegean to support Great Britain at the opening of the
Armenian question [see, in this volume, TURKEY: A. D. 1895,
and after], and the consequence was that France and Russia put
pressure on Abyssinia to renew hostilities against Italy. This
new campaign Crispi was ill-prepared to meet, as he had
detailed a corps d'armée for an expedition to Asia Minor in
conjunction with the naval preparations, and the strength of
the forces under arms did not enable the minister of war to
detach another corps to Erythrea. To complete the difficulties
of the position, a coolness arose between the Emperor of
Germany and the government of Crispi, the latter having
notified the German government that he should at the proper
time denounce the Treaty of the Triple Alliance with the
object of providing better security for Italian interests in
Africa. The Emperor in reply advised the King of Italy that
Crispi was becoming importunate and must be got rid of. This
defection probably determined the fall of Crispi. It gave such
strength to the opposition at home, that the intrigues of the
Court and military circles succeeded in paralyzing all his
military plans, and especially in preventing him from
superseding Baratieri, now recognized as incompetent for the
enlarged operations which were in view. The King refused to
consent to the suppression until it became imperative through
the increase of the force to a point at which a superior
officer was necessitated by the regulations, when Baldissera
was appointed to the superior command. But before Baldissera
could enter on his command, Baratieri, against the distinct
orders of the government, attacked with a force of 14,000 men
the impregnable positions near Adowah which Menelek held with
80,000. He was met by the most crushing defeat that Italy has
had to undergo in modern times. Out of the total force no less
than 6,000 perished.

"The history of this affair still remains more or less a
secret, the court-martial which followed being rather
calculated to bury than expose the facts of the case, but the
immediate effect was to induce the ministry to resign without
waiting for the assembling of parliament. The magnitude of the
disaster made it evident that, considering the Italian
temperament and its tendency to panic, the responsibility for
it would be visited on the ministry, though it was only
responsible in so far as it had submitted to the Royal
decision deferring the recall of Baratieri. The King,
unwilling to accept the programme of Rudini, gave the
formation of the new ministry to General Ricotti, a Senator,
Rudini taking the portfolio of home affairs (March, 1896). …
The scheme of army reorganization proposed by Ricotti, which
aimed at improving the efficiency of the force by devoting
money rather to the instruction of the rank and file than to
the maintenance of superfluous officers, was opposed, … the
law was defeated in the chamber, and Ricotti gave place to
Rudini as President of the Council. The rejection of Ricotti's
plan was a triumph for the Franco-Russian party, which had
re-assumed the direction of foreign affairs. Africa, under
this policy, being excluded from the Italian sphere of action,
peace was made with Menelek [October 26, 1896] on terms which
practically implied withdrawal from Erythrea to the port of
Massowah. This measure satisfied the exigencies of the old
Right, while the Radicals were conciliated by the exclusion
and proscription of Crispi and by the understanding with
France, as well as by the reversal of the repressive policy
towards the extreme members of their party. Thus the year 1897
saw Italy reduced to inertia abroad and apathy within."

_W. J. Stillman,
The Union of Italy,
chapter 15
(Cambridge: University Press)._

The peace made with King Menelek in 1896 ended the Italian
claim to a protectorate over Abyssinia, which seems never to
have had any basis of right. It started from a treaty
negotiated in 1889, known as the Treaty of Uchali, which
purported to be no more than an ordinary settlement of
friendly relations, commercial and political. But the
convention contained a clause which is said to have read in
the Amharic (the court and official language of Abyssinia),
"the King of Abyssinia may make use of the government of the
King of Italy in all matters whereon he may have to treat with
other governments." In the Italian version of the treaty, the
innocent permissive phrase, "may make use," became, it is
said, an obligatory "agrees to make use," &c., and was so
communicated to foreign governments, furnishing grounds for a
claim of "protection" which the Abyssinians rejected
indignantly. Hence the wars which proved disastrous to Italy.

ITALY: A. D. 1897.
Dissolution of the Chamber.
Election of Deputies.
Reconstruction of the Ministry.

Early in the year a royal decree dissolved the Chamber of
Deputies, and elections held in March gave the Rudini Ministry
a large majority. The Catholic party refrained almost entirely
from voting. But divisions arose in the course of the year
which brought about a reconstruction of the Cabinet in
December, Signor Rudini still being at the head. An important
event of the year was the resolution of the Italian government
to evacuate Kassala, on the Abyssinian frontier, directly
eastward from Khartum. The Italians had taken it from the
Mahdists in 1894. It now became part of the Anglo-Egyptian
territory.

{274}

ITALY: A. D. 1898.
Arbitration Treaty with Argentine Republic.

See (in this volume)
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898.

ITALY: A. D. 1898 (March-June).
Report on charges against Signor Crispi.
His resignation from Parliament and re-election.
Change of Ministry.

In March, a special commission, appointed the previous
December, to investigate certain serious charges against the
ex-Premier, Signor Crispi, reported his culpability, but that
nothing in his conduct could be brought for trial before the
High Court. The charges were connected with a scandalous
wrecking of several banks, at Rome, Naples, and elsewhere,
which had occurred during Signor Crispi's administration, and
which was found to be due to political extortions practiced on
those institutions by members and agents of the government.
Personally, it did not appear that the ex-Premier had profited
by what was done; but his wife seemed to have been a large
recipient of gain, and moneys wrung from the banks had been
used for party political purposes and for the government
secret service fund. On the report made by the commission
Signor Crispi resigned his seat in Parliament, and was
promptly re-elected from Palermo by an overwhelming majority.
In May, the Ministry of the Marquis di Rudini, much weakened
by the troubled state of the country, was reconstructed, but
only to hold its ground for another month. On the 17th of
June, upon a threatened vote of want of confidence, it
resigned, and, on the 28th, a new Liberal Ministry took
office, with General Pelloux at its head.

ITALY: A. D. 1898 (April-May).
Bread riots in the south and
revolutionary outbreaks in the north.

"May 1898 will be remembered for a long time in Italy, and one
may wish that the eventful month may mark the turning-point in
political life of the new kingdom. The revolt was general, the
explosion broke out almost suddenly, but long was the period
of preparation. 'Malcontento' is quite a household word in
Italy—and the Italians had more than one reason to be
dissatisfied with their national government. The rise in the
price of bread, as a consequence of the Hispano-American war,
was the immediate, but by no means the only, cause of the
uprising which darkened the skies of sunny Italy for several
days. The enormous taxation imposed upon a people yet young in
its national life, in order to carry out a policy far too big for
the financial means of the country; the failure in the attempt
to establish a strong colony in the Red Sea; the economic war
with France; the scanty help Italy received from her allies in
time of need; the political corruption, unchecked when not
encouraged by those who stood at the helm of the State; the
impotence of the Chambers of Deputies to deal with the
evil-doers as the claims of justice and the voice of the
people required, all these evils have prepared a propitious
ground for the agitators both of the radical and reactionary
parties.

"The Bread Riots began towards the end of April, and in a few
days they assumed a very alarming aspect, especially in the
small towns of the Neapolitan provinces, inhabited by people
ordinarily pacific and law-abiding. The destruction of
property was wanton and wide-spread, women careless of their
lives leading the men to the assault. In many cases the riots
soon came to an end; in others the immediate abolition of the
'octroi' did not produce the desired effect. … There was no
organization in the Neapolitan provinces; the riots were
absolutely independent of one another, but they were
originated by the same cause—misery; they aimed at the same
object—a loud protest by means of devastation; they all ended
in the same way—viz., after two or three days the soldiers
restored order, the dead were buried, and the ringleaders
taken to prison to be dealt with by the military court. In the
north, at Milan, the uprising was of quite a different
character. In the south of Italy it was truly a question of
bread and bread alone. In Central Italy it was a question of
work, in Lombardy a truly revolutionary movement. The
Neapolitan mob shouted for bread and bread alone, some asking
for cheaper bread, some others for 'free bread.' In Tuscany
the cry was, 'Pane o Lavoro!' (bread or work). In Lombardy
quite another trumpet was sounded: 'Down with the Government!
Down with the Dynasty!'

"The Milanese, of all the people of Italy, have plenty of work
and bread, and it is admitted by all that bread had nothing to
do with the revolt of Milan. I have studied this movement from
its inception, and my conclusion is that the revolt broke out
long before it was expected, thus making the discomfiture more
certain. The great majority of the population of Milan was,
and is, conservative and loyal to the King, although not
pleased with the doings of the Government. Only a minority,
but a very noisy and active minority, is against monarchical
institutions. For some time past the revolutionary party of
Milan have made no mystery of their political aspirations
towards the establishment of a Milanese republic, to be called
'Republica Ambrogiana.' … Milan is also the headquarters of
Socialism and Anarchism. Socialists and Republicans once upon
a time were implacable foes. Many a battle they fought one
against the other; but since 1886 the two have come to love
each other more, or to hate each other less, whichever it may
be; and towards the end of 1895 they entered into partnership
against their common enemy—Crispi! Then the Anarchists came
in. Decent Republicans and timid Socialists were rather averse
to ally themselves with anarchy; the very name was loathsome
to them. However, this natural mistrust soon disappeared, and
the Anarchists were welcomed into the dual alliance. Still
another element was to enter—the clerical party. … The
clericals have not a special cry of their own. They satisfied
themselves by rubbing their hands and saying: 'Down it goes at
last.' Little they knew that not the dynasty, not united Italy
was then going down, but society itself. … A friend of mine,
who was in the midst of the revolt, assures me that its
importance has been very much exaggerated in the first reports
sent abroad; and from the official documents, since published,
it appears that about 90 barricades were erected, and some 20
houses ransacked to provide the necessary material to build
them. The number of the killed amounted to 72, and that of the
seriously wounded to 63. On Monday evening [May 9] order was
restored in Milan. … On Wednesday morning shops and factories
were reopened, but it will take years to undo the mischief
done on May 7, 8, and 9, 1898. All are sadder now; one may
hope that they will be wiser also. The agitators, the deluded,
the masses, the governing classes, the Government, all have
had their lesson."

_G. D. Vecchia,
The Revolt in Italy
(Contemporary Review, July, 1898)._

{275}

ITALY: A. D. 1899 (May-July).
Representation in the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)
PEACE CONFERENCE.

ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900.
Parliamentary disorder, leading to arbitrary government.
Assassination of King Humbert.